I got involved in a program that builds toys for terminally ill children at Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland, Oregon. I have always had a love for cranes and my father and grandfather were both master craftsmen. I saw plans for a crane in a book of woodworking plans that was basically made from two by's and furniture casters. I thought that I could design and build something more realistic looking than that, so I set out to do it and I think it came out pretty good.

It is made of oak veneer plywood, solid oak, solid walnut and solid alder. It's about nine feet in height and rolls around on casters concealed in the tracks. I used many tools to build it but one that I had never used previously was an Onsrud inverted pin router. What a cool tool that is. It makes reproduction woodworking even for me possible since I am not the craftsman that either my grandfather or father was.

I have a much better one designed that is far more mechanically sophisticated and looks like a DeMag CC 12000 or Gottwald RG 912 with the cab out in the left front and an operative turntable. This crane will be over 35 feet in height with the boom fully erect. It will have metallic parts interfaced into its design, e.g. sprockets, roller chains, etc. because of the mechanical features, but it will be primarily wood with these parts concealed as much as possible.

Here are some drawings of the newer version of the toy crane. I wasn't able to get the entire drawing on the scanner but it will give you some idea as to how much better it will look as well as how much more sophisticated it is.